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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26763631">The plant that never blooms</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyfernleaflet/pseuds/ivyfernleaflet'>ivyfernleaflet</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Batman: The Animated Series, DCU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - After College/University, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Anal Fingering, F/M, Masturbation, Phone Sex, Polyamory, Scent Kink, Sweat, Trans Bruce Wayne, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Underwear Kink, background talia/selina, i.e. bruce's absurd polycule</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:49:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,355</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26763631</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyfernleaflet/pseuds/ivyfernleaflet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Okay, so Harvey's a little nasty.  In what world is Bruce not going to indulge him wholly and totally?  Turns out, Bruce is a little nasty, too. </p><p>[tags edited to allude to the polycule world building going on in the background, but this fic is firmly about Harvey/Bruce.]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harvey Dent/Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle &amp; Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul &amp; Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul/Harvey Dent/Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul/Selina Kyle, Talia al Ghul/Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The plant that never blooms</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <span class="small">
    <b>
      <span class="u">disclaimer: I freely explore problematic, objectionable, and obscene content in fiction and ships, and therefore write both sfw family-friendly things and nsfw obscenity. I'm warning for this for the sake of those who would like to curate their fandom experience accordingly. While I try my best to warn for triggering and sensitive content, it is perfectly fine if my nsfw and/or obscene works discredit my other works in your eyes and you wish to disengage with them. Do what you need to stay safe, please!</span>
    </b>
  </span>
</p><p>there are ten thousand better ways to discuss my trans feminine bruce headcanons with other people, but whatever.  this was gonna be a specific kind of smut and then it went pear shaped and then I got tired.  anyway, I hold a personal hc that harvey's half black; I'll expand on that in a real au with real plot + characterization merits later on in my life (but for now, just imagine a black gregory peck, okay?).  as for this thing?  <strike>I edited it exactly one time /shrug/.</strike> ok ok, I edited it a second time, now.  ((readers of earlier versions may notice a significant detail got changed / removed, and that was done for personal reasons, nbd.))</p><p>anyway, content warning: bruce's bits are referred to using the words dick and cock, and also selina and talia jokingly (?) kinkshame harvey (and bruce by extension) but they don't really mean it, mostly.  also, bruce jokes about mild inconveniences being 'hate crimes' and selina jokes about slut shaming and are these things trivializing the very real instances of those problems in society?  sure, but the characters are also just a bunch of queer people hanging out in their kitchen and negging each other first thing in the morning, so it's not like these aren't stupid jokes we make among ourselves.</p><p>ALSO ETA: I changed my mind and now they're all dating, so the tags have been updated accordingly.  who knows, *puts on fancy sunglasses* maybe I'll explore this au more in an ongoing series.</p><p>as for the title, here:</p><p>
  <i>"I love you as the plant that never blooms<br/>but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;<br/>thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,<br/>risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body."</i>
</p><p>((from sonnet xvii by pablo neruda i.e. a poem harvey has probably recited to bruce at some point in this au.))</p><p>well... enjoy!  and do feel free to leave a comment, if you'd like; they are appreciated but, of course, not required.  and if comments = anxiety for you, just know that short and simple ones are just as loved as long and complex ones.  but again -- no pressure, either way.  i just wanted to soothe anyone potentially nervous and beating themselves up over that sort of thing.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The agreement was to never call it... odd.  Or a bad, negative, strange thing.  Bruce, who honestly figured she plausibly could be convinced that the sun shone out of Harvey's ass, would never ever cast aspersions on anything he was interested in.  She was not an unbiased member in this party.</p><p>"I mean, literally, it's disgusting," Selina said slyly, sitting on the kitchen table cross-legged and mixing peanut butter with syrup in a sticky, sickeningly sweet concoction in a too small ceramic bowl.  Bruce was completely certain she was adding too much syrup, based on the fact that the syrup bottle had been new and unopened last night, but was now halfway empty as it sat by her bony knee.  "Sure, I won't say <i>perverted,</i> but that Harvey Dent certainly has... kinks."</p><p>"Selina," Bruce said with a sigh, lacing up her running shoes (black with gold lines on the side; a gift from Alfred, her last birthday).</p><p>Selina perked up, inevitably, at the weariness in Bruce's voice.  "What?  What, what?  Is the word 'kink' too close to the implications of perversion?  Will it hurt his soulless lawyer feelings?  Okay, fine, he has particular tastes that may or may not run counter-culture to the general public consensus of appropriate -- "</p><p>Talia's voice came from faraway, as she called out, "No sociology talk without me!"</p><p>Bruce looked up, frowning slightly, trying to place where Talia was in the townhouse -- she must have been up in the storage space, doing god knows what.  She'd been attempting to convert the tiny attic-like space into some sort of greenhouse-indoor garden-hydroponics type area.  Bruce pretended not to know about it by ignoring any progress Talia was making on that front.  All she knew was that Talia was working very hard to invalidate any and all of their security deposits ( -- not that Bruce and Talia needed the refunds with both of their inheritances, and not that Selina had paid a deposit in the first place, as she had proclaimed herself as their sugar baby -- <i>'It's how I get around my commitment issues,'</i> she'd explained cavalierly, as if Talia calling her and Bruce both 'Beloved' didn't mean that Talia had fully claimed them both as her people, and as if Selina herself hadn't literally described Talia and Bruce as her girlfriends to inquiring outsiders on at least six separate occasions that Bruce was aware of).</p><p>...Anyway.  Bruce had no interest in Talia coming to join this conversation.  If she was working on her project room, then maybe she'd stay out of things.  Bruce hurriedly finished tying the one shoe and moved on to the second, just in case.</p><p>Selina took note, and therefore shifted into an even worse heckling mode.  "Then come down here, babe," Selina called back, grinning at Bruce and licking peanut butter off her thumb.  "And help me shame Bruce before she goes on a <i>Harvey-appointed run."</i></p><p>There was absolute silence -- a horrid sign of things to come -- during which Bruce tried to finish lacing up her other shoe quickly and do a last-minute check of phone-keys-water bottle, so she could bolt out without further incident.  Unfortunately, she still wasn't fast enough, as Talia traipsed in through the second entry into the kitchen, hair in a high bun and soil clinging to her gardening outfit (an emerald green, A-line shirt with geometric cut-outs, combined with high-end black leggings).</p><p>"Oh, disgusting," she said with her version of glee, which was to eye Bruce with a full-on judgmental gaze, half-lilt of a grin on her face.  "I didn't need to know this.  I'll certainly be here to shame you when you return."</p><p>"I believe that this is a hate crime," Bruce said flatly, to which Selina cackled and Talia hummed, still judgmentally.</p><p>"Which one," Talia challenged, fully grinning now, eyes sparkling.  "Name the hate crime, my love, and I will cease and desist."</p><p>Bruce's eye twitched, knowing that she couldn't.  It was a microaggression at most -- and truly, simply, friendly banter and teasing.  At least they never acted this way in front of Harvey -- he'd probably get upset about it, whereas Bruce knew how to discern it for the affection that it really was.  "Well, with that, I'm going for my run now."</p><p>"Please take your slutty pictures in a public restroom this time," Selina said offhandedly, adding more syrup to her peanut butter -- Bruce could tell, even as she turned her back on them both, because of the fresh scent of maple was wafting throughout the kitchen.  "I don't want to be party to this absurdity by having it happen in my own house."</p><p><i>"That's</i> a hate crime," Bruce shot back with levity, joking.  Then, thoughtfully, she added, "And you don't pay rent."</p><p>"Rent is optional when you're a catch like me," Selina said without pause or shame.  "Anyway, I'd say it's more slut shaming than anything, and that you've earned your lumps.  You and Harvey both."  She, outrageously but not unexpectedly, purred.  Audibly.  "Do pass on the message for me."</p><p>"Well," Talia said, and Bruce could hear her gliding across the floor, could hear the smugness in her every move.  "I'm sure Bruce will pass on <i>some</i> sort of message to him."</p><p>"Mm, yuck.  Positively yuck," Selina sighed out, as if she had the right to be the exasperated one here.  Any further teasing was silenced by the soft sounds of gentle kissing and quiet, brief murmurs, which Bruce knew from experience was Talia gently kissing Selina and wishing her good morning.</p><p>It was as good a time as any to make her escape.  "That's enough," Bruce said, mostly only sighing and feeling resigned to the ways the other two showed their affection through relentless teasing -- even if she escaped for now, they'd definitely start up again in the near future.  She yanked open the back door to the patio, and felt at least assurance in the fact that they'd make themselves scarce for a while after her run.  "I'll be back in an hour.  We're not talking about this anymore."</p><p>"I just hope you're wearing the lacy reds," Selina called after her as Bruce stepped outside and began to shut the door behind her.  "I helped you pick those out, and they're sexy as hell, Bruce!"</p><p>Bruce huffed, and slammed the door the rest of the way closed.  She was unwilling to dignify Selina with a response... or to confirm that she was right.  Instead, Bruce focused on hurrying down the patio steps and reviewing her running options.  The beach was two miles off from the back of their rented townhouse.  She could run that, a mile on the beach and then the three miles back no problem.  Taking time into account, and that the girls were really joking (so she was perfectly allowed and able to take pictures for Harvey in her en suite bathroom), she could make pretty good time before Harvey's class obligations.</p><p>Rolling her neck and then her shoulders, Bruce took a deep breath, and set off on her run.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Harvey's preferences weren't too far out there -- though it was uncertain if Bruce would have been unbiased enough to notice if they were -- but still.  She didn't find his requests too abnormal.  Going for runs, especially in the late summer to pre-fall heat, made her sweat: this was a fact.  Harvey apparently found this in and of itself sexy: another fact.  Harvey also found her underwear sexy -- which, okay, maybe was a little questionable -- but still: fact.</p><p>That all could only culminate in so many ways, considering Harvey also apparently had some sort of scent kink that they were both learning to navigate together.</p><p>They'd been figuring it out pretty decently, Bruce thought.  It just meant Bruce wasn't <i>too,</i> too new to this routine of theirs.  Wasn't new to shutting herself in her en suite bathroom with her cellphone, slipping off her running joggers and compression shorts, and then slipping back on her athletic shoes, sandy from the beach (not that she wore them in the house except for this express purpose -- Alfred had certainly raised her better than that) to take pictures.  The shoes were merely for aesthetic purposes, she reminded herself, slipping the lacy panties down past her knees, so she could get a shot of the sweat soaked underwear and sandy sneakers.  It was the implication of immediacy and debauchery.  Because lingerie was barely appropriate for anyone to be running in, with how they rode up and really barely offered support.  And sure, she wore the compression shorts over them to solve that problem, but that wasn't part of the fantasy Bruce was trying to capture, as she snapped a picture and studied it.  The fantasy was that Bruce ran and sweated in lingerie, and now was going to let Harvey in on it.</p><p>Bruce really didn't know how the pictures did anything for Harvey.  She knew the underwear was the crux of the whole thing: when he got the vacuum-sealed package in the mail a few days from now, he'd let her know just how potent the gift was for his libido.  But the pictures were lesser -- more simple foreplay.  A promise.  And that was... nice, certainly.  But again: not the main point of it all.</p><p>Still.  Harvey had asked for this part of it too.  Who was Bruce to withhold?</p><p>Bruce changed poses slightly to stretch the elastic a bit more taut and offer up a better glimpse of her shoes.  Of course, it didn't feel -- sexy or comfortable, to run with lace tickling and riding up, with sweat pooling in uncomfortable places because of the multiple layers -- but it felt...  good to know she was playing into something dirty and secretive that Harvey had only recently begun to feel comfortable sharing as something he wanted from her.  Sure, yes, Selina and Talia knew as well, but... that was as secretive as Bruce could get, living with two women as nosy and headstrong as those two.  She loved them dearly, but also?  They were occasionally far too much in Bruce's business, whether she wanted them there or not.  Harvey understood that, by this point; it all simply functioned on a taciturn agreement that no one talked about it directly to Harvey's face.</p><p>But back to the task at hand.  Bruce studied her handiwork and chose what she felt was the best lit photo.  <i>'Postmarking later this morning,'</i> Bruce wrote out, still standing in the middle of the bathroom, underwear pooled around her ankles and getting sandier by the second as they rested upon her shoes.  <i>'hope it finds you well.'</i>   She thought about it for a moment, then painstakingly added, <i>'xo.'</i></p><p>After clearing her throat, and shutting down the part of her mind that was screaming about lack of true digital privacy, about cloud technologies and all the ways leaks of these sort of pictures happened time and time again -- she hit send, and watched the loading wheel spin quickly.  In about half a second, the time stamp appeared on the photo and the text accompanying it.</p><p>Right away, Harvey was typing.  And then, with a tiny <i>ding!,</i> his message came in:</p><p>
  <i>'hooo-ly HELL Bruce, you're gonna be the death of me.  i have practicums this morning!!'</i>
</p><p>Yes, Bruce did know that.  She also knew Harvey was very into the unattainable.  Of edging, and of being on that precipice of being aroused and yet needing to tamp it down and get through the rest of the day as the presentable and dignified Harvey Dent, future state prosecutor hopeful.</p><p><i>'Like I said: merely postmarking.'</i> Bruce texted back, being intentionally obtuse.  Like Harvey didn't live close enough for Bruce (and Selina and Talia, if they wanted to go and make trouble) to hop into Bruce's tiny little sports car and drive for less than thirty minutes and drop off the incriminating envelope containing vacuum-sealed used underwear in his mail slot.  This was part of the game, too.  <i>'That shouldn't interfere with today's schedule.'</i></p><p><i>'fuck FUCK fuck'</i> Harvey sent back.  Bruce bit down on a smile.  The uncharacteristic ineloquence definitely meant Harvey had unceremoniously shoved a hand down his underwear and was masturbating already -- just from a little implication.  There was always something... empowering about that.</p><p>Bruce cleared her throat a little, and toed off her sneakers.  Letting the underwear slip off from around her ankles, and she kicked it across the bathroom floor.  She thought about calling him, but...  that might have been playing with fire.  <i>'Good luck with practicums.'</i> she texted back, still obtusely.</p><p><i>'wanna see your dick so bad baby'</i> Harvey texted back, surprisingly fast if he was doing it one-handed.</p><p>Unfortunately for him, Bruce did draw the line at sending those sort of explicitly obscene pictures over insecure connections.  <i>'Would that I could, but...'</i> she texted him instead, a little hesitant to deny Harvey anything.  Then, very, very tentatively, she chose the heart emoji and sent it as well.  <i>'Thinking of you, though,'</i> she sent, after a careful moment of thinking for just a bit longer, still.</p><p><i>'oh baby,'</i> Harvey sent back right away.  <i>'i need smtg. wanna smell you.'</i></p><p>Bruce considered this for a bit.  She took a picture of her bare legs and feet, shoes mere inches away to emphasize how recently she'd taken them off.  <i>'About to shower,'</i> she told him, figuring it'd get a rise out of him -- would put thoughts of the very thing he craved front and center in his mind.</p><p><i>'nono no, ur scent tho.  cn i clal yuo'</i> Harvey sent back, and all those <i>typos</i> -- he truly was desperate, clearly.</p><p>Bruce felt like her heartbeat was behind her eyes.  Startlingly, suddenly, she felt arousal herself, cock becoming half hard out of practically nowhere, thinking about Harvey so intensely turned on over the barest of hints.  She took in a deep breath, and hit her speed dial -- Harvey was listed after Alfred and before Talia and Selina.</p><p>Well, actually, Selina had blocked Bruce's number for the betrayal of being listed after Harvey, so currently Selina wasn't technically listed as anything until that latest play-fight was resolved.  But Harvey -- just, it was Harvey.  So yes, Bruce had him at number two, and was unapologetic about it.</p><p>And speaking of -- Harvey picked up before the first ring had finished.  "Babe," Harvey groaned out, and he sounded so far gone already.  "Fuck <i>me."</i></p><p>Bruce laughed softly and stepped into the deep tub.  She grabbed a tube of lube off the shower caddy hanging from the showerhead, and sat delicately on the bath floor, leaning back against the back of the tub wall and propping her legs open, balancing the phone between her shoulder and her ear to free up both hands.  "No, you me," she replied as playfully as she dared.</p><p>"Oh, absolutely," Harvey said, before grunting.  "My hand's not enough.  I wanna - you're sweaty, aren't you?"</p><p>Bruce hummed in agreement.  "I really should seal up the panties while they're fresh."  Bruce personally hated the word panties.  But Harvey --</p><p>He groaned, long and low at it.  "Yeah?  Oh babe, I'm sure they're so fresh, you can do it after.  Bet they're so strong, the smell won't even fade even after a quick jack off session between me and you.  Bet they'll still be <i>perfect</i> after -- after -- you're gonna fuck yourself while I can hear you, yeah?"</p><p>"Mm-hm," Bruce squirted a liberal amount of lube onto her fingers.  "I can do that."</p><p>"Yeah?  Yeah, I'm fucking my hand, thinking about your ass," Harvey said lowly.  "Wanna eat you out.  Lick you all over.  Fuck you 'til you make that squeaky noise you make while trying not to cry, 'cuz I fuck you so good."  Harvey's Gotham Narrows accent was coming out.  That meant he was really turned on, saying all these nasty things.</p><p>Bruce could only laugh a little, somewhat embarrassed, half wanting to protest the words but getting harder all the while listening to them.  After circling her rim teasingly, she carefully worked one finger -- the middle one -- into herself, and made the smallest of exhales at the intrusion.</p><p>Harvey of course heard it, used to Bruce's quietness and therefore the importance and the weight and meaning of each non-sound.  "Got yourself full of something, baby?"</p><p>Bruce panted lightly and sank the finger in all the way, brushed her pointer finger against her damp rim and shivered.  "Just a finger."</p><p>Harvey laughed.  If Bruce listened hard enough, she could hear the wet slippery smacks of him jerking himself off furiously.  "Yeah?  You gonna touch your pretty little dick, or you gonna just play with your ass?"</p><p>Bruce huffed out a small breath, face heating up.  Enough did have to be enough, at some point.  "Ah, <i>Harvey."</i></p><p>Harvey laughed again, but groaned soon after.  The wet smacks on Harvey's end were getting louder.  "Baby, sorry, but you're just so -- Bruce, Bruce, tell me about -- about the panties, hm?  Be a good girl?"</p><p>Bruce made a soft noise.  She worked in a second finger, that pointer finger, just shoved it in to stuff herself a little more full -- and it was much, <i>much</i> too soon but Harvey made her want it -- and it burned.  "Two fingers in," she said in an attempt to distract him.</p><p>"Damn girl, you're moving too fast," Harvey panted out.  "Be careful with yourself, lovely.  But the panties, baby?"</p><p>Bruce's face burned.  Her cock twitched hard against her thigh, precome already dotting the tip.  "They're red.  Lacy.  You saw them."</p><p>"Yeah.  Looked -- looked like it'd be like they were barely there while you ran.  No support?"</p><p>Again, Bruce <i>had</i> worn compression shorts.  But for the sake of the fantasy -- "None.  Rode up the whole time.  I... was bouncing the whole time."  She pulled her fingers out of herself just enough to fuck them right back in, hard and messy.</p><p>Harvey let out a shuddering breath.  "So when I get 'em, they're gonna be musky.  Smell just like you do when you sweat all hard, writhing up under me, taking my dick so good -- "</p><p><i>"Harvey."</i>  It was embarrassing to listen to him be so filthy.  Bruce fucked in both fingers all the way up to the knuckle, thighs quivering from it.  <i>"Harv."</i></p><p>"Oh, Brucie-baby -- " Harvey said, voice strained -- and he was coming, Bruce realized.  Coming with a loud shout, moaning all the way through his climax.  Bruce suddenly wished she could see him.  She could imagine him, his soft, wavy hair extra curly at his temples from sweat, his gorgeous cock being fisted desperately by his beautiful hands with his long, lithe fingers, his body curling in on itself as he came from how good he was making himself feel over the thought of Bruce --</p><p>Bruce let out a soft sigh and fingered herself a little harder, scissoring her fingers to make it burn more.</p><p>"Let me know when you come," Harvey breathed out, regaining some of his sense.  "Keep going 'til you do."</p><p>Bruce made a sound that was supposed to be a laugh, but barely could count as anything more than a gasp.  "Okay," she whispered.  "I'm close."</p><p>
  <i>"Good."</i>
</p><p>God, the longing in Harvey's voice was as addictive as ever.  Bruce took her cock into one hand, and only had to give herself about three firm strokes before she was tightening up around her fingers crooked up inside her and setting off a chain reaction of pleasure in her ass and erection that had her spilling messily onto the floor of the bathtub in throbbing pulses.  She was gasping, she was breathing in ragged inhale-exhales, she was lost in how good she felt.  She'd come so fast, going from zero to a hundred over so, so little --</p><p>But that was just about normal with Harvey.  "Harvey?" Bruce said, uncertainty gripping her suddenly for no reason, leaving her untethered for the briefest of moments.  Her voice was rough at the edges from her orgasm, words and thoughts sliding together -- "Harv?  Still there?  I -- I -- "</p><p>"You came, I heard you, good girl," Harvey said faintly.  "God, I miss you.  I love you, baby."</p><p>Bruce couldn't help but laugh at that.  They lived not <i>even</i> across town from each other -- all the distance was mostly self-imposed, a control to ensure Harvey didn't spend too much time with Bruce when tertiary education was so important to his dreams and goals.  Meanwhile, Bruce just wanted to make sure she wasn't -- letting herself be as obsessive as she was always liable to get about things she cared about, especially as she figured out if she should give the dream of med school another try and re-enroll for pre-med courses somewhere.  And yet, self-imposed or not, she missed him too.  Desperately.</p><p>"Are you free the weekend after next?"  She asked, already thinking about how to rectify their estrangement.  Slowly, then, her climax-sloshed brain caught up with what she was saying and she realized -- right, she was being overbearing.  Presumptuous.  She was already sending him underwear in the mail to tide him over, and he had a thousand things to do for law school, so she couldn't just <i>assume</i> -- because the last thing she wanted was to then make him feel bad for having to turn her down.</p><p>"Sorry," she hurried to correct.  "I didn't mean -- "</p><p>Harvey cut her off.  "Well, the package should come in a day or two," he said.  "And by the time I get my use out of that -- " Bruce shivered a little, thinking about the implications of <i>that</i>, of the mental images of Harvey laying in his bed, huffing her underwear like a man dying of thirst or lack of air, and of him taking the tiny piece of lacy cloth and wrapping it around his cock to jack off with it.  " -- then it'll be about time for the weekend after next, huh?  So... I'd say the timing's right."</p><p>Bruce laughed a little, feeling exhilarated and embarrassed once more.  Selina and Talia weren't going to let her live this down if they found out how the routine post-run texting had spiraled into phone sex.  How she and Harvey were determined to be as in each other's faces as possible, even when setting personal boundaries and arbitrary rules about it.  "So.  If it sounds amenable to you, then...?"</p><p>Harvey barked out a laugh that was more about surprise than humor, clearly.  "What, yes, Bruce, absolutely, it's 'amenable' to me.  It's fuckin' aces, and spades, and all the card suites you can think of.  Let's do it.  But listen, I have to go clean up and get presentable for meeting with my professor -- but I love you.  Baby, I love you, so, so much."</p><p>Bruce thought back on the text that had sent Harvey so near rabid that he'd wanted more pictures or a phone call.  Of her little heart emoji and her <i>thinking of you.</i>  She wasn't demonstrative, not often and not in ways that were conventional, but she could pick and choose her moments.</p><p>"Love you, Harv," she whispered, and then slowly worked her fingers out of her asshole with a slight grunt.</p><p>"The confession is a little marred by your identifiable 'taking fingers out myself' tone of voice," Harvey said with a small, fond sigh, and there was rustling as he presumably sat up and likely grabbed a bedside tissue to clean up.  "But the meaning does still stand.  I get that.  I appreciate that."</p><p>Bruce shrugged, a twinge bashful.  "Then take it or leave it, I suppose."</p><p>"A thousand times, I'll take it," Harvey said in a rush, no pause, no thought.  "A million times.  Can't get rid of me that easy, Bruce Wayne.  Love you."</p><p>Bruce laughed, feeling like this was the hundredth time in the past hour, and leaned fully back against the tub backing.  Taking her phone back into hand and staring up at the spacious bathroom ceiling, she wondered if this was what being in love felt like for everyone.  If they, as humans, had the full capacity to really understand what that truly meant, the absurdity of being in love.  Because, for a split second, she felt like they couldn't; not with how big and huge and amazing her feelings for Harvey felt in the moment.  There had to be depths to this that she would never, ever be able to fully parse, beyond split seconds of intense clarity that threatened to swallow her up entirely.</p><p>These were dangerous thoughts to follow through on, at least when Harvey had things to do and Bruce ought to let him get on with his day.  "Get to practicum," Bruce told him softly, cradling her phone close to her face.  "Before I end up not letting you go until I see you next, your grades be damned."</p><p>It was a false threat.  Harvey clearly understood that, and the way it was the closest Bruce could get to saying 'I love you' multiple times this close together, because he rumbled out pleasant chuckles and blew a kiss over the phone, completely unbothered.  "Well, with all my love, then."</p><p>Bruce smiled to herself and hung up carefully.  Staring across the bathroom absentmindedly, she caught sight of her discarded, filthy panties -- which she really needed to seal up and send out before noon, when today's mail was delivered.  Sighing, Bruce replayed Harvey's parting words -- all his love, huh?  Honestly, Bruce knew she was spoiled -- she'd always hope for nothing less than all of Harvey's love.  And it was possibly unfair of her to do that, considering her own reservations in demonstrating all of <i>her</i> love.  Still... she was happy Harvey at least understood her.  He understood that despite her not being able to always say it, she always meant it: that she loved him so thoroughly and true that she had to hold him at a distance sometimes, so she didn't ruin them both.</p><p>Very intentionally, Bruce texted him a bikini bottoms emoji, and then another heart.  Just to drive home the point with him, that she loved him.  It never hurt to be thorough.  Harvey sent a heart plus ten ribbon emojis before and after it in reply -- and <i>god,</i> did Bruce love him.</p>
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